Welcome to “Toy Soldiers for Old Gits” or what we call TSOG! This is a place where three actually four regular guys henceforth known as the Old Gits will ramble on about all scales of Toy Soldiers, various War Game Rules, record their AAR’s and comment on all manner of other war gaming stuff in general. Should be fun for every war gamer on the Inter Web...hmmm do people still say that? Anyway read on and enjoy!

Sunday, 12 March 2017

Longstreet - Four Player Mini Campaign Game 3 AAR

This is the third scenario of our three game
1863 mini campaign. Game wise both the Confederates and Federals have won a
game so this is the clincher. The Epic Points situation is a different matter
with 6 between first and forth. I foresee a lot of Epic 'actions' coming up in
this last game! As a twist though after the battle players will get dealt the
usual six Campaign Cards required after a regular 1863 campaign game with the
only card of interest being the 'Name In The Papers' one which of course allocates
Epic Points to the recipient(s) and that could easily change the final Epic
Point standings. Again we ran through the mini 'Post Game Process'. Units
recovered their stragglers which were half their losses, all active units
rolled to see if their Elan dropped and a Hero roll was carried out for each
engaged regiment. The Leader’s traits/abilities again didn't change. Each
player’s base values were then tallied up and additional 'historical' units
added to keep them around the total point value of 210. I used “historically”
available units and now the whole of the Union Vth Corps is engaged and the
Rebels have received fresh men from Rhode's Division as a top up as the other
units of Ewell’s IInd Corps converge on the area.

Brigadier General Gordons Georgian's move to destroy the Union Vth Corps left flank...

Situation:June 30 1863 late afternoon:

The action at Round Top Ridge had seen the
Southern forces of General Early defeated and they retired south westwards
rapidly reforming on the banks of Codorus Creek. There early halted his men and
form a defensive line as he was buoyed in his hopes of holding the Yankees and
men from Rhode’s Division would be able to reinforce him before nightfall.

Federal General Sykes was confident after
beating the Confederates and he pursued the Rebels closely as his regiments
were relatively fresh and his overall numbers were strengthened by the arrival
of the balance of the Corps 2nd Division. He believed he could deal a crushing
blow to Early’s Division while they were in retreat and isolated, he was
unaware that more Rebels were nearby. As soon as the Southerners stopped as
Codorus Creek he deployed all his available troops for an attack. There was
still several hours of good light and he considered hitting the Confederate
forces again before they could rest and be reinforced and while his own men
were flushed with success was the best course of action.

Just before 6:00pm on June 30 1863 General
Sykes army surged forward, the Battle of Codorus Creek began…

Battle 3 - Battle of Codorus CreekScenarios and ForcesForces are balanced at approximately 210 points
per command.From defenders view the River Crossing
Battlefield is to their left flank and the Tree Line is the one to the right of
it...Scenario special rules and objectives are in
place.The Break Point Total is 33The Tree Line BattlefieldUSA Dave 7 Epic PointsVth Corps 2nd Division 1st & 2nd BrigadesBrigadier General Ayres (European Service
& Wealthy)1st Brigade

The
Union Vth Corps commanders, Ayres and Crawford were quick to assess the Rebels
position at Codorus Creek even though it looked formidable with a river and
forest covering their frontage they were certain they could attack it
successfully. The Federals focused their line of advance on the Rebels river
positions leaving only two regiments and a battery to cover their left.

The
Yankees took casualties as they advanced the lead units of Ayres Brigade were
dispersed completely. Quickly the men in blue were at the river bank duelling with
the Rebels and the musketry favoured them. Losses on both sides rose steadily!

As
the first Union troops crossed the river in two locations the Rebels started to
reinforce their left and emerging from the thick forest.

The
Rebels of Avery's Brigade on the far left of the Confederate position were
broken by the flood of Crawford’s Yankees that were crossing the Codorus while
Ayres troops were not only halted at the other crossing but suffered great
casualties.

At
this point of the battle just as Brigadier General Gordons North Carolinians
were about to envelope the central Union regiments the Confederate leaders
decided their losses were too great to continue the action and ordered their
commands to withdrawal! The Union forces of Vth Corps had scored a great
success!

The game begins, the CSA is to the right of picture, the river scenario is closest and the forest line one is futherest. The Union Corps can already be seen moving from units from its left flank to the centre. The CSA artillery fires with little effect!

The Union attack continues to develop, CSA infantry have already advanced from the tree line to try to interdict the Union move toward Codorus Creek.

After destroying the Union Cavalry in the centre the Rebels return to the tree line as the Yankee artillery deploys, in front of Codorus Creek the Union right moves forward. The Rebel artillery is still proving rather ineffective expecialy on their right where the Bad Fuses card is played!

The massed Union attack unfolds on Codorus Creek, the Yankees are stalled by the 'the couldn't hit an elephant' and 'confusion' cards but the Rebels are slow to redeploy their right (me!). Two abortive charge turns slow the movement of reserves!

A Rebel Yell charge by the right flank fails and does no more than stop the other troops moving to aid their comrades. The first Union troops can be seen crossing the Creek this turn. Clever placement of poor terrain on the Rebel side of the Creek during the deployment is hampering their defensive fire!

The abortive Rebel Yell charge! Three bases out of six make contact and are roundly beaten!

The Union army is cross the Creek!

A couple of turns later and the Union own the banks of Codorus Creek! On the right of this pricture the first Yankees engage the entrenched Rebs and on the right a second Federal regiment crosses the Creek in the centre to replace one already destroyed by the desparte defenders. At this point even though attacking the Union losses are exactly the same as the defenders, the Yankees are firing like men possessed!

The unit positions near the end of the penultimate turn, both sides are finally fully engaged. Top left you can see the Rebel right has finally locked horns with the Union men. In the centre toward the top you can also see just behind the Yankee regiment across the Creek a regiment of North Carolinans is about to come into play! Only a few bases are required to break either side at the end of the turn so everything is depending on who gets the initiative for turn 12!

Turn 12 and the Federals get the initiative, they destroy several Rebel bases and roll a SIX on a D6 to secure the victory! The picture shows the Rebel left denuded of troops and the building objective ripe for the picking. In the centre and on the right the Union positions are less secure...NO MATTER the Rebs were licked!

Comments

A very enjoyable game! It ran smoothly as everyone has a few games of Longstreet under their belts now. There was only one slip up of rules and that was on the last turn calculating a single melee
result but that luckily would have had no effect on the overall game.

The Federal tactic of concentrating on one Rebel player caught us Southerners off balance and I was slow to react thinking the river line would be stronger than it turned out to be! I launched two charges (one aborted by the confusion card) both of which slowed my redeployment!

The game ran 12 turns. It was so close it appeared whoever got the initiative on turn 12 would win and that turned out to be the case, both sides were fully engaged and both were nine bases short of the 'break point' losing at least half a dozen bases was a sure thing so odds were very short of a result in the first player turn!No one was critically short of cards at he games end so that was good.

There's interest in the group to try a full
nine game campaign! I'm not sure if my current 6mm ACW armies are big enough to
field two 1865 Union forces I may have to place an order with Baccus! Also I may look at completing those couple of outstanding sceanrios I have sitting on the to do list and also try the Olustee one with four players as it was dessigned!

Also next game we are featuring a major House Rule change to test it...